COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The University of South Carolina student who died with three others in a crash last month was driving an estimated 90 miles per hour just before his car slammed into a building and burst into flames.
According to a Columbia Police Department traffic collision report, 22-year-old Brian McGrath of Fairfield, CT, was traveling south on George Rogers Blvd. around 5:00 a.m. on January 18 when he lost control of the Dodge Charger he was driving and slammed into the Farm Bureau Insurance building.
McGrath and the others in the car, Billings S. Fuess IV, 22, Melinda S. Pipp, 24, and Kelsey C. Harris, 24, likely died from the impact of the crash and not from the fire that engulfed the vehicle shortly after the crash, according to Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.
Harris and McGrath were USC students and Fuess was a former student.
The group was seen together at a couple of local nightspots prior to the collision, Watts said. They left The Wild Hare Sports Cafe, where Pipp was an employee, after midnight to go to another location. They were seen leaving together in McGrath's vehicle from another nightspot called Uncle Fester's sometime after 3:30 a.m., according to Watts.
Police said three of the passengers were not wearing seatbelts. Investigators could not determine if the fourth person was restrained.
Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott categorized the accident as one of the worst single car crashes he'd ever seen.
It is unclear if weather or alcohol played a factor in the crash. The Columbia Police Department and the Richland County Coroner's Office are still investigating.
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